Commerzbank backtracks on FT ‘fake news’ charge

Executives at German bank believed to have apologised to newspaper that published story alleging accounting fraud at Wirecard

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By

Chris Newlands

February 13, 2019 Updated: 1:02 p.m. GMT

Commerzbank has pulled a damning analyst note that accused the Financial Times of “fake news” after the newspaper published a story alleging accounting fraud at Wirecard, a German payments company.

A day after the FT published its January 30 story that a senior executive at Wirecard had engaged in fraudulent activities, Heike Pauls, a senior analyst at the German bank, put out a research note that said there was “no substance” to the allegations and that the newspaper and the journalist were guilty of “fake news”.